Welcome To The Data Leak Lawyers Blog

Are charity data breach incidents on the rise?

Charity data breach incidents appear to be on the rise, and there are a number of reasons as to why they can be an easy target for hackers, and why they may fall foul of data laws more easily than some other organisations.

According to recent figures, there were 59 charity data breach incidents reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) between January and March in 2018. This is a 69pc rise on the previous year’s period.

Although the figures appear to be in-line with rises seen in some other sectors, which may be due to the greater awareness of data breach laws given the new GDPR, the figures cannot be ignored.

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Last year’s WannaCry attack was a lucky escape for the NHS

Last year’s WannaCry attack was a lucky escape, and the government is quite rightfully being urged to learn lessons from the encounter. We are almost a year on from the day that saw around one-third of all NHS Trusts in England disrupted by the malware attack that specifically targeted older (and therefore weaker) systems and servers.

The attack saw hundreds of other NHS organisations – including almost 600 GPs – infected during the attack, and some 20,000 hospital appointments and operations were cancelled.

Ultimately, the WannaCry attack was simple malware that still managed to cripple the NHS. It was a lucky escape, and future attacks involving medical data could be far, far worse.
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A data breach at the University of Surrey Sports Park hits 90,000 staff and students

A data breach at the University of Surrey Sports Park has hit 90,000 people after a password was published online by a software supplier in what is being classed as an “employee error”.

The University has reportedly contacted members, staff and students to inform them of the data security issue, where details like birth dates, bank details, health information and contact particulars was at risk of exposure due to the publication of the password. A “sincere apology” has been issued, and victims of the breach are being asked to remain vigilant.
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TalkTalk accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity

Telecoms giant TalkTalk have been accused of continuing to neglect cybersecurity after a hacker contacted Sky news and reported website security flaws that had been left unfixed for years.

The news comes as little surprise to us as we continue to represent victims for previous TalkTalk cyber-hacks that were, in our view, entirely preventable.

According to the media reports from the end of March, the hacker found a simple scripting error that allowed him to take control of a TalkTalk.co.uk URL, and use it to trick customers that they were visiting a genuine TalkTalk website.
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Councils and local authority agencies collect plenty of data; but are they looking after it?

There is a suggestion that councils and local authority agencies are concentrating too heavily on data collection as opposed to data security. We know councils need a lot of private and sensitive information for a number of legitimate reasons, so why aren’t they protecting it properly?

Recent studies have exposed startling statistics: from one in four councils suffering security breaches in the last five years, to more than 75% of councils failing to provide mandatory data protection training.

Councils are collecting the data, so why aren’t they securing it?
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Researchers say catastrophic data breach is inevitable by 2021

According to researchers at the Raytheon and the Ponemon Institute, a staggering 80% of IT and cybersecurity experts believe we may be headed for a data breach of “catastrophic” proportions in the next few years.

The combination of more and more devices connected to the internet, together with the increasing risk of cyberattacks, as well as the growing sophistication of the attacks we’re seeing, is allowing cyber-hackers the perfect platform to do some real damage.

On top of this, with organisations still not taking their cybersecurity responsibilities seriously enough, unless things change, we could be headed for disaster very soon.
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When 246,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security Employees’ details are found on a home computer, it’s time to question data security

The U.S. reported a discovery of 246,000 sensitive personal records belonging to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees on a home computer owned by an employee. The department and its employees have a vital mission to “secure the nation from the many threats” the U.S faces.

One can only wonder if they ever suspect their own colleague to be a major security threat to their personal lives…

This, let’s face it, is the kind of thing we do not want to hear about. Although this story hails from across the pond, we’ve had our own issues of a similar nature of course. The Heathrow USB stick incident springs to mind.
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